Keep Your Routine and Travel On...

It's 6:00am.  You wake up to the repetitious hum, hum, hum of your cell phone alarm, feel the balminess of the 5-degrees-too-warm room, pull back the overly-crisp white sheets, and put on your flip flops that you strategically placed at the side of your bed last night so as to ensure you never, ever step on the orange/black/maroon/brown colored burr-burr carpet below you.

Welcome to another day on the road.

Mornings are usually not my favorite part of the day, especially when I'm not waking up in my own bed with a good morning kiss from the hubby and a brief cuddle session with the pup.  Away from home, I usually have the multiple layers of hotel curtains drawn so tight that not even a single ray of sunshine can come through.  This, of course, is due to the fact that I had to shut them the night before to block out the bright sports stadium-esque lights that are all seemingly positioned outside just my window in the hotel parking lot.

via here

When you live a significant portion of your life on the road for work, mornings like the one I described above can be a real morale killer.  After multiple seasons of being on the road from September through November for my job, I realized that I would have to change a few things so I could stay positive and frankly, less grumpy.

Do you have morning routines that you enjoy?  When I'm at home, I always turn on the Keurig, gather some snacks for the day, make my coffee, and try to take just a little time, even 5 minutes to sit down and watch the news, read a few pages of a book, or just enjoy our back deck while taking in the frosted morning light.

So, as I recently prepared to leave for a week of travel, I packed some of my favorite granola bars, a recently-borrowed library book, and an actual coffee mug.  By leaving my travel mug behind, I'm hoping to make time to actually enjoy sipping away at my morning caffeine boost in my room instead of taking gulps in the car while looking at the GPS, checking the traffic report, oh, and singing along to that annoying-but-oh-so-catchy Taylor Swift song (bonus points if you know what song I'm thinking of...).

Until next time, travel on...
Maggie